Reviews

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

You play either on foot or in a Vital Suit. The VS mechs don't actually change the gameplay much, functioning as just another option of weapon and gear. If you want to be fast and capable of ducking, stay on foot; you can even pick up a VS weapon if you like, although you'll be slow. If you want a huge pool of hit points and more firepower than you'll know what to do with, then stick to a VS. Most of the VSes transform as well, giving them a bit more flexibility in balancing speed and firepower.

Fighting non-boss enemies can net you weapons and a nice cache of thermal energy to survive on, especially since you heal damage as long as you have thermal energy and are on foot. It also frees you up to explore the level and look for the medals hidden in it. Of course, with no Achievements to drag you on, there's no compelling reason to hunt down the hidden medals.

But between the ever-dropping T-ENG counter, enemies respawning as you move back and forth, and the very directed nature of the fights -- the large Akrid mini-bosses have glowing weak spots to aim for, and the enemy VS pilots are no brighter than their infantry comrades -- the levels quickly become superfluous. The goal isn't to see how a particular combination of environment, weapons, and enemies interact, but to find the optimum route and weapon to get through as fast as possible. Lost Planet is fun, and beautiful, and being able to hop in and out of mechs as easily as you would change guns in another shooter is a fun, unique mechanic. But it's really not a modern shooter by any stretch of the imagination; it's a Mega Man game stretched into 3D.

Conversely, the boss fights are almost entirely excellent, your reward for plowing through the levels. Each one is a screen-filling wonder. Whether a monstrous Akrid moth-thing or a super-soldier in an advanced VS, almost every one is excellent. The bosses, more than any other aspects, are what make the single-player fun. The one exception is the game's end boss, and without any spoilers, we'll say that whether you find the fight easy or hard, the drastic change in gameplay to accommodate a properly mech-anime style ending was a terrible decision.

One other issue mars the PS3 version, as opposed to both the 360 and PC versions: performance. The entire game looks a bit hazy and less-than-crisp, but the frame-rate issues which appeared in previous versions' boss fights appear throughout the PS3 version of Lost Planet.

The multiplayer's elimination and team elimination modes help show what really works about the levels, and that's staying on the move. You have to constantly keep moving forward, to the next unclaimed data post or untapped VS or sniper position above a plum weapon. But switch into Fugitive, where the host is hunted by all the other (up to 15) players and earns points towards victory by either moving or turning the tables and slaying a hunter, and those beautiful, deadly snowy playgrounds are much more rewarding.

Data Grab, a mode where one team has to claim all of the data posts on a map or simply hold a majority when the time limit ends, out Battlefields Battlefield 2142. What it lacks in massive player counts is more than made up for by the wonderful insanity of a horde of people jumping in and out of mechs, jockeying to get to underwater spots for cover, trying to hold data posts, and in general tearing up the winter wonderlands of this fictional world. Multiplayer is also where you'll see a lot more use of the game's grappling hook as players use it to dance around the mechs.

When we reviewed the 360 version of Lost Planet a year ago, we liked it and gave it good marks. Since then, multiplayer options have gotten better, graphics technology has moved on. Releasing a shoddy PS3 port a year late isn't taking a risk; it's taking advantage. We honestly don't think that it was worth a year's wait to get a Mega Man costume, a Dead Rising costume, and massive frame-rate issues. That means there's no real reason to recommend this Lost Planet over last year's releases, so don't feel bad about leaving it out in the cold.